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Q&A

Feliz reveals May 2026 text-to-911 outage affecting 12 callers

New York City Council · Sep 9, 2026 · starts 0:58:49 · 1 min 11 sec

Feliz asks if this is the first outage this year. Gelobter reveals a text-to-911 outage in May lasting about 110 minutes, affecting 12 texters who received bounce-back messages instructing them to call. Feliz expresses outrage that this two-hour outage was also kept secret from the public.

Lisa Gelobter

It is not.

Lisa Gelobter

There was a text to 911 outage in May that affected 12 callers, and each of those people were called back.

Lisa Gelobter

They got a bounce back message when they tried to text saying, please call.

Lisa Gelobter

And then they were followed up with as well.

Oswald J. Feliz

So there was another outage.

Oswald J. Feliz

When?

Oswald J. Feliz

May, you said?

Lisa Gelobter

May for 12 texters.

Oswald J. Feliz

How long was the outage for?

Lisa Gelobter

I think about 110 minutes.

Oswald J. Feliz

All right, so almost two hours.

Oswald J. Feliz

That is wild.

Oswald J. Feliz

So there was a two-hour outage, and the public was not notified about it back in May.

Lisa Gelobter

For texters.

Oswald J. Feliz

What caused the outage, and why was the public not told about this?

Oswald J. Feliz

I mean, if people are texting, they're texting because they're in imminent danger, whether it is due to their safety, a fire.

Oswald J. Feliz

Medical emergencies, just wondering why we didn't think it would make sense to tell the public about it.

Oswald J. Feliz

Why are we keeping these outages, sweeping them under the rug, keeping them a secret?

Oswald J. Feliz

That's so detrimental.

Oswald J. Feliz

That's how catastrophes happen.